Abstract
IN this lecture, the author points out the difficulties which the accurate specification of colour encounters owing to the physiological nature of the colour sensation. He explains how a colour may be specified by the wave-length of its dominant radiation, its luminous flux, and its coefficient of purity, or alternatively by the trichromatic method, which specifies the luminous flux of each of three standard wave-lengths, which together produce the colour sensation in question. When the sensitivity curves of each of the three sensory elements of the normal eye to light of different wavelengths are known, one method of specification may be converted into the other. The author describes the principles on which modern colori-meters are constructed, and states that those based on the trichromatic system are the simplest and suffice for many purposes. He believes, however, that for accurate work a combination of a spectro-photometer and a colorimeter on the lines of the instruments of Nutting and of Priest is necessary. He hopes that a laboratory for the study of colori-metry will be established in France which will compare with those already at work in the United States, in Great Britain, and in Germany.
Couleurs (étude physique) et colorimétrie: Conférence faite au Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers le 7 mai 1930.
Prof.
P.
Fleury
. (Conférences d'actualités scientifiques et industrielles, 12.) Pp. 34. (Paris: Hermann et Cie, 1930.) 5 francs.
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[Book Reviews]. Nature 127, 552 (1931). https://doi.org/10.1038/127552b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/127552b0